SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS MAY 2013

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS MAY 2013

• India on 22 May 2013 successfully test fired the 290-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the Navy's latest guided missile frigate INS Tarkash off the coast of Goa. The missile performed the high-level 'C' manoeuvre in the pre-determined flight path and successfully hit the target. Jointly developed by India and Russia, the BrahMos is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kg. India is readying several different versions of the missile which includes land attack, anti-ship and submarine- launched versions.
  
• Swiss-made Pilatus PC-7 Mk-II turbo trainer aircraft was inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) in a ceremony held at the Air Force Academy at Dundigal near Hyderabad on 30 May. The aircraft, which meets all basic training functions of ab-initio pilots including aerobatics, tactical and night flying, has been customised to meet the requirements of IAF. Addressing the media later, Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal N.A.K. Browne described the induction as an important event in the history of IAF. He said 12 aircraft had so far been delivered and all the 75 were expected to be delivered by Pilatus company by August 2015. Since there was a requirement for 173 trainer aircraft the IAF might exercise the option of procuring another 37 PC-7 Mk-II aircraft. Replying to a question he said the initial operational clearance (IOC)–II for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) was expected by November this year and it would be with the Air Force by the end of next year.
  
• Defence Ministry on 27 May 2013 inaugurated the first fighter aircraft base at Thanjavur in southern India. Su-30MKI combat aircraft will be stationed here. Thanjavur airbase can be another strategically important airbase of the Indian Air Force. IAF can protect vast area of interests by stationing frontline fighter aircraft Sukhoi at Thanjavur. The setting up of the premier fighter base is important because of current geo-political scenario and threat perception in the Indian peninsula and in the Indian Ocean.
  
• Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) on 28 May 2013 launched its third Fast Patrol Vessel (FPV) which is built for the Indian Coast Guard.The vessel was launched by Nina Paul Antony, the Chairman of Cochin Port Trust. This vessel was named Abhinav. This vessel is third in series of 20 numbers FPVs contracted by CSL. The primary objective of the vessel is monitoring, fisheries protection as well as patrolling within Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Also, the objective of this vessel is coastal patrolling and involvement in patrolling for anti-smuggling, search and rescue operations and for anti piracy operations. The secondary role of the vessel is to provide communication link as well as escort convoys during the war time as well as hostilities.
  
• India on 14 May 2013 unveiled its indigenously developed Rotavirus Vaccine named Rotavac after the Phase-III clinical trial of low cost rotavirus Vaccine. The Rotavac that has demonstrated strong efficacy and excellent safety profile; if gets its approval by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) than will be made available in the market at a rate of Rs. 54 per dose. Approximately 4,53,000 children across the world die every year due to rotavirus diarrhea. According the recent reports, about one lakh children below five years are dying in India due to severe diarrhea that is caused due to Rotavirus bacteria. India accounts for 22 percent of the global deaths that occurs due to diarrhoea-causing rotavirus.Rotavac vaccine has been developed under a public-private partnership. So far, two similar vaccines are available in Indian market and they cost around Rs. 1,000 per dose and thus remain out of reach from millions of people in developing and third world nations. It is an oral vaccine that is administered in infants in three dose course at ages of six, ten and fourteen weeks, which is given to a child along with the recommended Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) to the children.
  
• Indian Naval Aviation received a major fillip with the arrival of the first of eight Boeing P-8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance and Anti-Submarine Warfare (LRMRASW) Aircraft at Naval Air Station Rajali (Arakkonam) on 15 May 2013. The remaining seven aircrafts would be delivered over the next two years. The P-8I aircraft, based on the Boeing 737-800(NG) airframe, is the Indian Naval variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing has developed for the US Navy. The aircraft is equipped with foreign & indigenous sensors for Maritime Reconnaissance, Anti Submarine operations and Electronic Intelligence missions. The aircraft is fully integrated with state of the art sensors and highly potent Anti Surface and Anti Submarine weapons. These LRMRASW aircraft have been procured under the contract signed in 2009. The Indian Navy is in process of procuring an additional four P-8I aircraft under the option clause. The P-8I aircraft would greatly enhance India's maritime surveillance capability in the Indian Ocean Region. Vice Admiral Bimal Kumar Verma, Chief of Staff (Eastern Naval Command) received the aircraft in a function organized at INS Rajali.
  
• The Department of Yoga Therapy and Training of MDNIY has been designated as WHO Collaborating Centre in Traditional Medicine for a period of four years recently.This is the result of the efforts initiated in 2008 when MDNIY started collaborating with WHO Country Office under the biennium programme of traditional medicine and developed Yoga Resource Centre and brought out disease-specific booklets of Yogic interventions for healthcare. WHO does not have its own institutional network but identifies institutions from member countries to work in specific areas of health and designate them as WHO Collaborating Centres. There are 21 WHO Collaborating Centres for Traditional Medicine across the globe, but none in India in spite of having a large number of AYUSH institutions and 32 Collaborating Centres for Modern Medicine. The matter was taken up by the Department of AYUSH with WHO. Two AYUSH institutions namely Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, New Delhi, and Institute of Postgraduate Teaching & Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar, Gujarat have now been designated as WHO collaborating centres in traditional medicine. The network of 23 designated WHO Collaborating Centres for Traditional Medicine is meant to assist in implementing WHO strategies and resolutions relating to traditional medicine. The priority area of work for WHO Collaborating Centres of Traditional Medicine is to generate evidence-based information on the safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness of traditional medicine products and therapies.
  
• The MoS of HRD, Dr. Shashi Tharoor on 8th May told the Loksabha in a written reply that, the scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru have designed a pen shaped, needleless drug delivery device, that uses supersonic shock waves for the painless delivery of medicine into the body.
  
  This new method has been developed based on the collaborative work between the Laboratory for Hypersonic and Shock waves, Department of Aerospace Engineering, and the Microbiology and Cell Biology Department of the Indian Institute of Science. Using the new technique, typhoid vaccines have been successfully delivered into mice in the laboratory. The depth of penetration of drug below the skin is very small the animals during vaccine delivery do not experience a great deal of pain. The animal trails have shown that by using this method a lesser quantity of vaccines is sufficient to provide resistance to animals against infection when compared to conventional methods. The new system has multiple advantages such as being painless, easily portable, completely disposable, safe and very economical.
  
• Scientists have found a biological command centre for the ageing process in a lump of brain the size of a nut. The U.S. team identified the mechanism in the hypothalamus, which sits deep inside the brain, and showed that they could tweak it to shorten or lengthen the lives of animals. In a series of experiments, the researchers found they could extend the lives of mice by a fifth, without the animals suffering from muscle weakness, bone loss or memory problems common in old age. The work raises the tantalizing prospect of drugs that slow down natural ageing to prolong life in humans, but more crucially to prevent age-related diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer’s.“We’re very excited about this. It supports the idea that ageing is more than a passive deterioration of different tissues. It is under control, and can be manipulated,” said Dongsheng Cai at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.Writing in the journal “Nature” , the scientists describe how their research led them to what appears to be the body’s control centre for ageing.
  
• NASA is sending a six feet-tall solar-powered rover prototype for ice exploration on highest part of Greenland’s massive ice sheet. The space agency’s newest scientific rover is set for testing in the highest part of Greenland, NASA said. The robot, known as Grover, which stands for both Greenland Rover and Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research, will roam the frigid landscape collecting measurements to help scientists better understand changes in the massive ice sheet. This autonomous, solar-powered robot carries a ground-penetrating radar to study how snow accumulates, adding layer upon layer to the ice sheet over time.